diff --git a/TODO.md b/TODO.md
index b2636c67..7d0ff3da 100644
--- a/TODO.md
+++ b/TODO.md
@@ -285,36 +285,42 @@ error boundaries** anywhere in the repo; and `dashboards.id` is a **global** pri
 
 ## Files app — routing
 
-- [ ] **The files app needs a routing pass (noted 2026-08-15, after `31d8d725`).** Do this after the
-      file-browser test pass, alongside the code-editor work above. `docs/navigation-audit.md` is the
-      authority and names the anti-pattern; this is where it still lives.
+**The URL model is done (2026-08-15).** The folder is the pathname —
+`/files/archive/Tests/platform/docs` — and `?view=` is a NAME within it, not a second copy of the path.
+Deep links and refresh work, which they never had. Landed across `559560de`, `98ba604a`, `7e31564c`,
+`0dc88b51`, `7359af2f`, with `files-route.ts` + 23 tests as the one owner of encoding and of which params
+belong to the overlay.
 
-      **What prompted it.** Closing a viewer pane sent you back to home. `onCloseViewer` was
-      `setSearchParams({})` — a wholesale wipe that took `?path=` with it. Fixed, but the shape of the bug
-      is the point: four handlers touched the same query string and only one of them wiped it, because no
-      single thing owns that URL.
+Four bugs came out of that work and are fixed: closing a pane sent you home; `?view=` was stripped on
+every page load by a mount effect that had made deep links impossible since 2026-02-23; navigating kept a
+pane belonging to the folder you left; and the breadcrumb opted out of that last rule because it is a
+`<Link>` and never called the function enforcing it.
 
-      **Verified state, so the next pass does not have to re-derive it:**
+- [ ] **Rows are still not links.** This is the half that did not get done, and it is the original
+      finding. Both list and grid render `<div onDoubleClick>` (`FileItem.tsx:701,748`), and search
+      results render `<div onClick>` (`FileViewContainer.tsx:187`) — the "opaque click" that
+      `docs/navigation-audit.md` names. No cmd-click into a new tab, no middle-click, not
+      link-focusable, and the target lives in a closure rather than the DOM.
 
-      - **Rows are not links.** Both list and grid render a `<div>` with `onDoubleClick`
-        (`FileItem.tsx:701,748`) — the "opaque click" the audit names. No cmd-click into a new tab, no
-        middle-click, not link-focusable, and the target is in a closure rather than the DOM.
-      - **Search results are the same** — `<div onClick={() => handleSearchResultClick(entry)}>`
-        (`FileViewContainer.tsx:185`), and that handler both navigates the folder AND opens the viewer.
-      - **The breadcrumb already got it right** and is the model to copy: it renders a real `<Link>` when
-        given `searchForPath`, and falls back to a `<button>` only for a panel that does not own the
-        address bar (`Breadcrumb.tsx:21-26`).
-      - **A panel's folder is not addressable.** `useFileBrowserApp(basePath, root, urlPath)` keeps the
-        path in the URL only when `urlPath` is true — the `/files` screen. Every panel instance uses local
-        state, so it always opens at its base and its location cannot be linked or restored. Deliberate as
-        written; worth re-deciding rather than inheriting.
-      - **Two path-ish params coexist**: `?path=` is where you are, `?view=` is what is on top. The
-        ephemeral set (`view`, `ephemeral`, `ephemeral2`, `chatContext`, …) is listed once in
-        `useFileViewerPanels.EPHEMERAL_KEYS` and that list is the closest thing to an owner.
+      It is now much easier than it was: `folderHref(path)` gives a folder's URL and `hrefForPath` gives
+      a full `To` with the overlay already stripped, so a row becomes
+      `<Link to={hrefForPath(childPath)}>` and a file row becomes a link that sets `?view=<name>`. The
+      breadcrumb has done exactly this since before today and is the model.
 
-      **The shape of the fix**, if it holds up: rows become `<Link to={{ search: … }}>` like the
-      breadcrumb, so open-in-new-tab works and the target is in the DOM; one helper owns "set the viewer
-      params" and "clear the viewer params" so a fifth handler cannot get it wrong the way the fourth did.
+      Watch for: a row is also a click target for SELECTION (single click selects, double opens,
+      shift/cmd extend). An anchor changes what those gestures mean by default, so the selection
+      handlers have to keep working and `preventDefault` where they win.
+
+- [ ] **The acts that clear the overlay have no owner, only the list does.** `VIEWER_PARAMS` and
+      `withoutViewerParams` live in `files-route.ts` and are shared. But every site still decides FOR
+      ITSELF whether to call them, which is precisely how the breadcrumb shipped wrong an hour after the
+      rule was written. Three bugs in a row came from this. A single `navigateToFolder()` that every
+      caller must go through — rather than a helper they may remember — is the fix if a fourth appears.
+
+- [ ] **A panel's folder is still not addressable.** `urlPath` is true only on the `/files` screen;
+      panels keep the path in local state, so they always open at their base and cannot be linked or
+      restored. Deliberate as written — a dashboard can hold two browsers and one URL cannot serve both —
+      but worth re-deciding rather than inheriting.
 
 ## Known bugs